Due to rising health costs, the high costs of hospital rooms, the desire to provide comfort and convenience to patients, the medical industry has promoted in-home care for patients suffering from various maladies. Many patients must be connected to various medical devices. These medical devices frequently monitor certain parameters of the patient's health and have controls which must be adjusted due to changes in the patient's needs. Therapy changes may also require that entire protocols be programmed. In early versions of these medical devices, the physical presence of a care provider was required to adjust the device's protocol. Such reprogramming is costly and time-consuming.
In addition, healthcare providers such as hospitals, and health insurance agencies paying for healthcare now often require documentation supporting all medical procedures. For example, a health insurance agency may require that a patient prove that specific parameters which measure their health are at a certain level in order for the patient to be reimbursed or the agency may require evidence that the equipment is actually being used as intended. Also, patients or their care givers at home often fail to inform the care provider that an alarm associated with a medical device has occurred and, in certain cases patients may tamper with a device in response to an alarm condition.
Therefore, a need exists for a remotely controllable medical device system that can inform care providers of a patient's status by notifying of alarm conditions and sending status reports to a remote fax or computer of the care provider or other health personnel.
Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a remotely accessible health care system for medical applications. More particularly, the present invention relates to a system associated with a patient medical device which permits a healthcare provider located remote from the patient that permits the provider to monitor the patient's current medical condition status and with the capability of editing the patient's protocol, documents changes to the patient's protocol, and notifies the care provider of alarm conditions.